The ability to separate and/or purify viruses has enormous potential benefits in medicine, public health, and biotechnology. For example, the process of manufacturing vaccines involves the separation and purification of viruses from raw preparations (e.g., viruses harvested from infected chicken eggs or cell cultures). In fact, this separation and purification process can account for a large percentage of the production cost in the manufacture of a vaccine. In many cases, the purification of a virus involves multiple steps (which can take days), including the steps of: extraction, precipitation, centrifugation, suspension, ultracentrifugation, and resuspension performed sequentially to obtain a virus preparation suitable for use in vaccine production. Thus, a more efficient technique for the separation and purification of viruses could lower the cost and reduce the time associated with vaccine manufacture.
In another example, in patients infected with the HIV virus, reducing viral loads is an important aspect to treatment. Conventionally, antiviral medications are administered to the HIV-infected patient to reduce viral loads. However, many such antiviral medications have serious adverse side effects. As such, the ability to separate and extract viruses from a patient's bloodstream could provide an alternative modality of treatment for HIV infection.